Remember walking into the cafeteria and noticing that most of the people sitting at the tables looks remarkably like their neighbors (except your own table, of course)?

The yoga world is not above cliques.

Even Christianity is divided into denominations. Choosing neighbors can be the difference between hating yoga more than a kid hates Brussels sprouts and adult swim, and making yoga an integral part of life.

What follows are some rough analogies between the cafeteria cliques and those Sanskrit terms that will hopefully make choosing a yoga school of thought a little easier. Please bear in mind that, just as with cliques, these are sweeping over-generalizations, and for those within the yoga community, take them all with a grain of salt.

Vinyasa—the Honor Society

We all remember the Honor Society kids. The class presidents, valedictorians—the kids who exemplified what education “should” look like would be Vinyasa yogis. Vinyasa is the merging of the Eastern asanas (postures) to the Western aerobics. The term Vinyasa itself simply means “wise progression (of movement).”

That class called “yoga” at the rec center? Chances are it’s what we would call Vinyasa Yoga.

This is (arguably) the easiest class for first-timers to just walk in to, as teachers will regularly switch up their routines, so there’s no asshole three poses ahead in the sequence showing off his moves. Vinyasa’s physical practice is identified by a creative non-traditional structuring of poses sequenced together in such a way that they “flow” together. That’s it. It’s pretty easy to grasp, right?

The key idea in Ashtanga is practice, practice, practice. These are the folks who will be up at 5:30 in the morning to get an hour or more of practice in and stop eating anything after 4:30 PM. When this is taken to the extreme, they can become (in my teacher’s words) Ashtangarexics.

There are six yoga sequences primarily used in Ashtanga; the one you should know about is simply called “The Primary Series.” The Primary Series is not just stretches—there are movement sequences (called “vinyasas”) that chain the poses together very similar to calisthenics, making the sequence very aerobic. If you’re looking for the easy stretching class, don’t wander in to a led Primary Series (look for Restorative instead). For most of us, getting through the entire Primary Series may take as long as up to five years or more, practicing on average 25 days a month. That’s dedication.

There exists a subset of Ashtanga out there called Mysore. This is mostly for advanced* students. Think of it as a club, complete with secret handshake and everything. While most of us tend to hear “Mysore” for the first time and think it has to do with sore muscles (or was that just me?), it’s really just the name of the city in India where the style came from.

*In yogic terms, “advanced” does not mean “more flexible;” rather, it means more dedicated to a daily practice.

Iyengar—the Brains

At first glance, there’s not a whole lot that separates individual Iyengar practices from Ashtanga. This makes a certain amount of sense, as B.K.S. Iyengar and Sri K. Pattabhi Jois (the “fathers” of Iyengar and Ashtanga Yoga, respectively) had the same teacher. It is only when one commits to either school that the subtle differences between them emerge.

Where Ashtangis focus on doing the practice for a long time, Iyengar yogis focus on doing the practice right. If the Ashtanga mantra is “practice, practice, practice,” then the Iyengar mantra would be “technique, sequence, timing.” Rather than “rep it out” the way the jocks might, Iyengar yogis focus on perfecting their alignment with the aid of props—bolsters, blocks, straps and so on—to achieve optimum results, allowing the elderly, the ill and the infirm to enjoy the benefits of physical practice just as deeply as their Ashtangi cousins.

Anusara—the Cool Expelled Kids

“The Scandal.” It happened years ago, but everyone still remembers. They can only refer to it as the Capital-S “Scandal:” someone did drugs or got hurt or hurt someone else or whatever, but it all got wildly blown out of proportion and the details were lost in the mix; long story short, that cool kid you (thought you) knew wound up expelled; last you heard, they went to New York and were doing something that you secretly thought was awesome.

Anusara’s physical practice was derived from Iyengar’s, but the influence is now barely (if at all) recognizable. A focus on heart-opening postures and invocations edges their practice towards the more spiritual side of yoga—this makes them some of the most loving yogis out there, eager to share their warmth and care as if you were one of the family.

Jivamukti speaks well to dancers and musicians; the teachers will often not take a pose while teaching a class, stressing the importance of being able to learn by listening and trying things out in one’s own body (do your Triangle, not the Triangle of the person who’s been doing it for 15 years). Classes will be full of inspirational music and often include chanting as well.

Added bonus: advanced Jivamukti yogis, from prolonged adherence to a vegan diet, tend to be great cooks. Even for non-vegans, eating their food is always a treat.

Bikram—the Preps

They’re hot (literally; Bikram classes are held in over 100-degree Fahrenheit studios). They’re popular. They drive all the fast cars and are seen at all the hottest parties. Bikram Choudhury’s 26-pose sequence is something of a controversy in the yoga community. Is it yoga? Is it even good for you? Well, there’s all kinds of articles on it. The best thing is to go to one and decide for yourself.

One should note: there are other hot yoga studios out there, and some places that just call what they do “hot yoga.” Not all hot yoga is Bikram Yoga.

Bikram yogis can be some of the most fiercely fiery folks out there. However, Bikram’s intentions appear to be focused on appearances; Bikram sings that if the goal is to have Madonna’s arms and a six pack, look no farther than his heated studios and sequences. Forget the chanting. Forget the Oms. Forget the thoughtfulness and mindfulness and all that spiritual bullcrap—wanna look great in some Lululemons? Bikram says he can get us there.

Kundalini Yoga is possibly one of the most powerful forms of yoga practiced in today’s society. It won’t yield the same results as the more physical practices, but it is very difficult to have a prolonged Kundalini practice and not feel something. While we call it subtle energy in class, when it starts moving, it feels like anything but “subtle.” This movement can have profound and powerful effects on a practitioner. As such, Kundalini Yoga is the practice I most strongly recommend is practiced with supervision.

Yin—the Coffee Klatch

Yin Yoga is the physical practice that asthmatics, smokers or otherwise un-athletic people can fall in love with. Yin practices are known for having students hold poses for a long time to deepen stretches. Fear not, no one is going to balance in Garudasana (Eagle Pose) for ten minutes. Expect a gentle warm up to get in to the body, and from there, a lot of ground work where body weight slowly—over the course of three to seven minutes per pose—adds to and deepens stretches.

Yin’s physical practice is based more on centering the mind for meditation than showing off athleticism. It’s not uncommon for students (or teachers) to mentally check out for minutes on end, making this a great class for dealing with anxiety. However, Yin yoga should not be taken any more lightly than the other physical practices. While Yin does not have its yogis performing handstands and jump-backs, the poses can become incredibly intense as they deepen over time. Throw on the latest volume of Buddha Bar and zone out for an hour!

Perhaps it’s part of the practice, or just the people who favor it, but Yin yogis seem to be some of the friendliest, chattiest bunch in the whole kit ‘n kaboodle (when not in the middle of their seven-minute shoulder-stand). It’s also possible that, because of their focus on meditation, Yin yogis tend to make the best listeners.

Biased bonus: Yin yogis usually have the best musical selection out there. Steal their playlist.

This is all meant to illustrate that there is not one single, simple path to Enlightenment, Peace or Happiness. Sorry.

However, there are some things I have noticed in my research that appear to be more universal:

2) Doing yoga does not inherently make someone a better person. We have a term, Karma yogi, which signifies people who don’t practice anything related to yoga as we recognize it in the West, but by their own moral and ethical actions fulfill what we could consider a healthy yogic lifestyle. Yogis are still humans. They cry, they shout and sometimes they fart in public; they are no better or worse than anyone else on this planet.

3) Everyone within a class is different. Just as there were the occasional jerks in the coffee klatch and the goth kid who opened up (but still sat with their friends), not all Ashtangis are fun-haters, nor all Bikram yogis materialistic sociopaths, nor all Jivamukti yogis vegangelicals trying to force tofu and kombucha down everyone’s throats. These are huge, sweeping tongue-in-cheek generalizations meant to help make those big foreign words look a little less intimidating.

Ultimately, the school does not matter.

There’s a great line in the movie Ip Man, where the martial arts master who would become Bruce Lee’s teacher says to a rival, “What matters is not the school, but the person.” Our next great philosopher yogi could come from the heated halls of Bikram after a revolutionary enlightenment. A man may find himself drawn by the seductive coils of Kundalini yoga. The leader of Anusara was not above scandal.

What matters is finding the class that serves, fuels and makes you come back to the mat time and time again, and what’s wild is that that may change from day to day or teacher to teacher. I love the fiery practice of the Primary, but when I subbed in for a Restorative class, preparing for it gave me one of my favorite practices, ever.

So when someone says such a way of yoga is the right way, or (even worse) the only way, that’s a big giant red flag that you should not be practicing from that teacher. Your yoga should be—must be—the yoga that’s right for you, and sometimes, the best way to find out what that is is to get your asana (that’s a yoga pun) down to the studio nearest you and just try out everything.

Really though, try the kombucha.

Kevin Macku is a 20-something fledgeling yogi with a love of words. He is a trained actor who occasionally appears in local movies and on stage. His preferred methods of expression are based in movement: Suzuki’s Training for the Classical Actor, Viewpoints and Butoh to name a few, all of which benefit from the practice of yoga. In the midst of a rigorous physical practice, he discovered he was undergoing a spiritual transformation, and began to document the experience. These entries can be found at http://doafy.posterous.com/. Like his work? Kevin himself can be reached via Facebook or at [email protected].

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Great article. I find myself to be a blend of all. Teaching yin at a hot studio, being vegan, focusing on alignment, taking flow classes, and I still like the spinal warm ups from Kundalini. Also practice the 8 limbs from astanga.

But I do want to say that I don't think Anusara is derived from Iyengar….John Friend studied it but the only thing they have in common is they are alignment based. The sequences are nothing like each other. And how the alignment is taught is distinctive….Anusara was not derived from Iyengar. It was informed by it you might say but they have nothing in common.

Sorry, pet peeve of mine….thanks for humoring me. And of course, in your eyes I may be all wrong….Feel free to let me know….
Be well. Namaste.

My apologies. That's more of a historical point than a modern one: John Friend studied Iyengar yoga for a time before the physical practice of Anusara was canonized (at least, according to my readings). However, you are correct, the current incarnation of Anusara's physical has evolved to its own point, and its inspirational roots are barely visible anymore.

I think I am splitting hairs to be honest. I just think Iyengar Yoga and Anusara Yoga are so different and taught very differently. Anusara is heart-based in a definite way but the universal principles and the way they are taught make is different than Iyengar. Though now many teachers teach the same principles but different languaging…and maybe not the same detail…

I often say Power Yoga is a spin off of Ashtanga….the original Vinyasa yoga. But I imagine an Ashtanga practitioner would find fault with my wording as well….[ have yet to read the comments below ].
I do want to commend you on your originality here and in other articles….Impressive.

I was trained in Anusara (too bad for me–at least I'm a cool kid) and you're right, Kevin, it was derived from Iyengar. John Friend was an Iyengar teacher before he came up with his own style with the loops, spirals and scandals.

John Friend was a Senior Iyengar teacher. Anusara is Iyengar sexed up (pardon the pun). It's an Americanized version of the practice – Americans want everything now and don't do well with being told they are beginners at anything. Anusara satisfies our need to feel as though we are "good" at yoga without spending the time. Sorry. I love many Anusara teachers – my first was Amy Ippoliti – they bring a lightness and joy to the practice. I respect both practices but Anusara is a direct descendant of Iyengar. Thank you.

I think it's incorrect to say that Mysore style Ashtanga classes are for advanced students only. It is actually an appropriate way for absolute beginners to start – one pose at a time, taking ownership of one's practice from the beginning under the personal guidance of a teacher. Walking into a led class where you have to do the entire primary series while breathing in accordance with the teacher's count is for advanced students. A lot of studios offer "intro to ashtanga" classes which may be most appropriate for someone who wants to be walked through part of the series in a led format.

It's a tough call; I don't know anyone personally who walked into Mysore day 1 of "I want to start taking yoga."

I feel as though I, personally, would find it incredibly intimidating, and risk running out of the studio swearing off yoga forevermore, and there are a couple of other Mysore-first-experience blogs on elephant journal that also talk about the intimidation factor.

But yoga is, in the end, among other things, about the removal of ego. If someone can walk into a new experience with that level of humility and self-acceptance, if for whatever reason they committed their lives to a practice without ever having experienced it, I could absolutely see Mysore as appropriate for them in their beginning stages.

The other way I could see it working is if everyone was brought in on equal ground to start: a school-based class (like the ones under so much controversy in California) or a college class where the teacher starts a group out on the same level but gives individual students their personal practice from there, I could theoretically see that being great for beginners.

Thanks for reading, and for sharing your opinion! I love the Mysore style practice as well. I just wish there were more places around me locally that did them! As it is, my practice is either personal, or in a guided class.

I used to find a few Jocks friendly towards the rest of us – but in college, and they were physical training teachers. Particularly in orienteering (now known as geocaching) class … which I'd summarily dropped out of anyway because it had been much too hard on my overweight body with the perennially weak core muscles.

Ashtanga may have to be more accurately classed the "Friendly Jock" clique.

You are right… the intimidation factor and ego issue are both reasons why people think Mysore is not appropriate for beginners. It is not uncommon for people to think you have to know the primary series to come to a Mysore class. It is also not uncommon for people to see learning the series as some difficult thing. For people who need to work slowly as their body changes, progressing one pose at a time when they are ready, Mysore is ideal. But there are a lot of folks who can already do much or all the poses, who get really impatient when they learn they won't progress to the next pose until they learn the sequence leading up to that point. In my opinion, those are some of the people Guruji was referring to when he said ashtanga is for anybody, except lazy people.

In discussing this with a few other elephant journal folks and their immediate company, someone just dropped what I think is the greatest quote about Mysore:

"[Mysore is] not for only the advanced, but it is only for the committed."

And I *love* the quote that goes something like (and I'm doing this from memory so it's not verbatim): "Fat man can do yoga. Skinny man can do yoga. Weak man, strong man can do yoga. Every man can do yoga—except lazy man. He cannot do yoga." I was looking for it when I was writing this post, but alas, I couldn't find the exact quote and didn't want to misquote it.

I'm a wanabe-Ashtangi myself, so a committed Mysore practice is my next goal. Again, I cannot find a studio locally (or a way to pay for it). I think it's a great way to learn and practice, but that is for me and my aspirations; not everyone wants yoga as part of their (daily) life, and many people want to sleep in past 6 AM; I'm not going to hold those choices against them. Jivamukti is a beautiful practice, Anusara folks are so loving, I have secret crushes on Kundalini yogis and I love my playful rivalry with Bikram yogis. We all have our individual paths to enlightenment, and I wrote this post to celebrate (and laugh a little) with everyone who commits to upholding a yogic way of life.

I agree with Chris (Guzik) completely. I do not think this idea that Mysore class is for advanced practitioners is properly-informed or offers a clear representation of what Mysore actually is. Traditionally, Mysore is for beginner students. Led class is for advanced students. One would only attend Led classes once the sequence is memorized. Mysore class presents the opportunity to learn it, day by day, posture by posture, in a manner that is appropriate for the student. I believe that taking Mysore class with a knowledgeable, experienced, and truly present teacher is more appropriate than any other class out there. It is like having a private one-on-one lesson with a teacher – with instruction and adjustments specific to your abilities and your needs – even with the other students in the room. I would not agree that humility or self-acceptance are necessary and essential characteristics for a beginner to have a good experience in a Mysore class. It certainly would not hurt, but I think it is more important that first, the teacher is invested in the student and is present, aware, and prepared to guide the student not just physically through the postures but through the psychological discipline, and secondly, that the student is committed and trusts the teacher and the practice. No led class of any school of yoga facilitates this sort of individual attention or has the potential to foster such a deeply personalized experience, in my opinion. Mysore-style practice is a truly unique way of learning for any person and I believe ought to be credited as such.

Again, there are many other articles here on elephant journal that talk only about Mysore—its style, its benefits, its uniqueness and its challenges. In the interest of keeping the article reasonably readable (that is, as close to 2,000 words as possible), I could only give Mysore an honorable mention, and things like Acro-yoga got entirely scrapped.

If Mysore is right for an individual student, that is something that is worked out individually between a student and a teacher, and that delves into the specifics of both the teacher and the student, which are designations I wanted to avoid, again, for the sake of the length and tone of the article. I absolutely agree that Mysore requires both teacher investment and student willpower (to commit to a regular practice) and humility (to be a student), but in the interest of a cheeky humor piece, I wasn't about to go into that level of detail when there are, again, other articles that devote their entire focus only on Ashtanga, or Mysore specifically.

As you warranted yourself, Mysore is a truly unique way of learning, and it was credited as exactly such, though I disagree with the phrase "for any person." In my closing paragraphs, I state that there is no such thing as a universal "best school" for yoga. I refer to my reply, above: "not everyone wants yoga as part of their (daily) life, and many people want to sleep in past 6 AM; I'm not going to hold those choices against them."

Those who are at a part of their lives or practice that will be complimented by Mysore will find it, of that I have no doubt. It is not a decision one makes lightly. One does not (after all) simply walk in to Mysore.

If you truly feel that Mysore is not poorly, but actually *mis*represented in this article, then please write an article giving your own point of view on the practice and why you feel beginners can walk in. I will be among the first to share it with my friends (as I cannot repeat enough times, I wish to find or start a Mysore-style class locally). Elephant journal will always benefit from multiple points of view!

Fun, helpful article! But – ooh – you're gonna get it from the Bikrams. Of the three months I attended, there was constant instructor-chatter about the physical benefits of breathing through your nose in a sauna. (Allah help you if you had the slightest concern that it might not be the right class for you). 🙂

great to laugh!! love how you say, "even aethiests" LOL so rude!!! i would say ESPECIALLY aethiets!!! we love deconditioning ourselves from limiting belief systems and yoga/meditation is the perfect tool to discard these kind of mental trappings.

I was agnostic (with a healthy dose of cynicism that *looked* like atheism) before I took yoga teacher training, so that line is speaking from personal experience. I don't want to distance atheists/agnositcs, as they could get just as turned off as California soccer mom Christians by yoga if they thought it required subscription to the Hinduism Today! magazine. It was actually because of the non-religious practices that I finally came to yoga, and I was still really skeptical during my first few weeks.

But then I woke up one day and realized I wanted to be Hindu. So maybe they're not *entirely* wrong!

But- a distinction to be made here–Glee Club as traditionally known, is not "Glee" the TV/Musical Film hit and cult classic – that's a lot of dance and drama and the closest representation of Drama Club wonks in current popular culture (= power yoga)… again, I do not mean "drama queens", per se …. that may be reserved for Wanderlust "deadheads"

Hi there! Fun article! I hope I'm not intruding; if I am please delete me. As one of the "Even Atheists" I personally have great difficulty finding a class/teacher that isn't either heavily focused on … lets say an alternative reality version of anatomy and physics, or else with the goal of helping Type A personality marathoner types avoid crippling themselves with too much running – I refer to them in my head as classes for hippies and classes for yuppies respectively. Nothing against hippies or yuppies, I'm just not one of either. Actually because some of my friends are hippies, I probably have more sympathy in that direction. Does one of the above styles (or others altogether, maybe) focus on the physical poses and flows without too much of the chakras and energy visualization stuff while at the same time not being weirdly competitive and jock-ish and/or more-yoga-than-thou? Maybe it's more about the teacher, though, and I just have to keep trying places. I had a teacher that I liked for years, though I don't know what school she came from – she just taught "yoga" (no qualifier) out of a church hall, but then I had to move, and I haven't found another class I can keep taking long term. Thoughts and suggestions welcome, and if I'm intruding or being offensive in some way I apologize. Thanks!

Join the Superannuated High School Kids … also, "The Breakfast Club" … there usually is little woo-woo and spiritual about those styles … it's hard to find old-school hatha without a bit of the hippie influence– but if you want physical, contemplative, non-competitive and without that showoffy before-class vibe or the suck-up students who get the most attention .. you have it … there …

You also have it in pilates … and I think there is a new movement afoot to meet active baby boomers where they are without those insulting "Gentle Yoga" classes … challenging yoga and "baby boomer" are not always mutually exclusive …

This is one of those cases where Mysore style is actually kind of right there. Again, I was agnostic before teacher training, and the Ashtanga-based practice is very physical. I could list all of the reasons here, but here's someone else's take on it: http://www.elephantjournal.com/2012/08/10-reasons…

If you arrive after the opening invocation, there's no chanting, there's no gods, there's no spirituality. It's you and your practice, and your teacher will give you only the poses that are right for you to have (the ones your body is right for). You will not start, stop, or practice the same pose as anyone else at any given time, so you don't have to worry about anyone looking better than you in "your" pose, nor some egocentric teacher who wants to get the whole class (or its one shining star) into Bird-of-Paradise Pose.

As the discussion above has implied, finding a good Mysore instructor is half of the battle, but if you can find it, you can get yourself into a great physical practice that's custom-built for you, but still has the backing of generations of tutelage.

Anyone who just teaches "yoga" is likely teaching Vinyasa-style yoga, which is markedly absent of a discernable "style". The trouble with calling it Vinyasa yoga is that it really does come down, again, to teachers. Every teacher in Vinyasa is going to be different—some don't even om before/after class, some talk about the gods during, some have you dance during class…it's very difficult to know what you're going in to.

Funny article and good title. "HIGH SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL" would have been good too.

But….don't you think you are making a lot of general comments here about a lot of practices? Hm, Don't you think it is difficult to really access a practice until you have ventured into it? Re: "Ashtangis are a rough bunch", "At first glance there’s not a whole lot that separates individual Iyengar practices from Ashtanga".

Studied folks in these traditions would not agree. I certainly do not. The means is the same but the end is different. That is, the techniques are only the end point to a greater means. The techniques in each of these practices are quite different.

"What matters is finding the class that serves, fuels and makes you come back to the mat time and time again, and what’s wild is that that may change from day to day or teacher to teacher."

This may be true but only partially. I say this because today people are offered so many choices they bounce around from one style to another and one teacher to another (sort of like the flavor of the week syndrome). Most serious students of yoga will agree that having stayed with one primary teacher served them the best and well rather than going from pillar to post. In yoga, the teachings are to help you not just follow the whims of the mind but to learn to watch them rather than become a puppet to it.

Yoga does not go outward it goes down and deep…even dirty, if you will!

"So when someone says such a way of yoga is the right way, or (even worse) the only way, that’s a big giant red flag that you should not be practicing from that teacher."

Right on! That's why I do not and will not buy into the thing about Ashtanga-yoga being for everyone. What about the student who had 5 knee operations, the guy with a slipped disc (all those forward bends will kill your back), the woman who weighs 210 lbs and the list goes on.

As Swami Rama said, 'there is no superior path….it is inferior to think so."

Yeah, try out everything, but also give it a fair chance, taste and trial. One shot is not enough!

I would agree that not every person is going to master every asana. Our own physical idiosyncrasies, past injuries, etc. can all limit certain things no matter how long we practice, but…

Ashtanga isn't for everyone? Hmm…I totally disagree. The Ashtangis I know are such a wide range of people, various ages & innate body types. Do all of their practices look like Ashtanga the way Kino does it? Of course not, but that doesn't mean it can't be for everyone who is interested in dedicating themselves to their practice.

Well, you know, once we take away the vinyasa, modify the practice and change it so it can be suited to the practitioner….we might be left with the question as to whether or not it really is Ashtanga-yoga any more. (?)
There is a reason why we have other Masters like Iyengar, Sivananda, etc.

Perhaps the better phrase is that some methods of yoga are just better suited to some students than others. Having studied and learned the primary series directly under Guruji in Mysore; I know it is a very challenging series even at the primary level. And having taught it for 5-6 yeas at my school, I found many students took it very hard when they could not 'perform'. As a student myself I was evolving in another direction with backbending and Atmavikasa….and I can just say from my own experience when these students switched to AtmaVikasa method (which has equally challenging postures), they were so much happier, content with their practice, their progress and the method.

It was as if they stopped trying to shove a square peg into a round hole.

One of the greatest misconceptions now is that other methods of yoga are weaker. But if you (you in general) were to do Atmavikasa series, Sivananda (some of the advanced poses), I think people would find it has it's own challenges…that are of equal value!

"But….don't you think you are making a lot of general comments here about a lot of practices?"

Yes. Please allow me to pull two direct quotes from the article itself:

"Please bear in mind that, just as with cliques, these are sweeping over-generalizations, and for those within the yoga community, take them all with a grain of salt."

"These are huge, sweeping tongue-in-cheek generalizations meant to help make those big foreign words look a little less intimidating."

~

"Most serious students of yoga will agree that having stayed with one primary teacher served them the best and well rather than going from pillar to post."

This article was not written with the most serious students in mind. I'm not here to show off my expert knowledge to an expert crowd. It was written for a specific audience, namely those who have started taking once-a-week classes somewhere, usually at a gym of some kind, but have figured out that they want to get more in to it. Even "most serious students" have a friend in that company. I know I do. That's how many people get in to yoga. This post is for them, to give them just the tiniest taste with a dash of humor.

Most everyone's been through the High School experience, and it's such a vivid memory that most of us carry with us for a significant portion of our lives. It makes it easy to refer back to and divide many things into these archetypes.

I'll admit that I don't have enough experience with Kripalu to write it up; all of the information I got here was from either practicing the styles myself or interviewing friends and yogis of the styles.

And yes, try everything! It may lead you to a class you don't like, but it's just as possible that it'll lead you to a class you love! I'm glad you enjoyed the piece!

From the title, I thought this was going to be a cliche boring article. Yet this writer found a way to distinguish the styles and the "cliques" based on their positive traits so it doesn't come across as favoring one style or knocking another. I like to respond to criticisms of the western yoga scene as high schoolish with a "Hell yeah!" The highschoolishness is a testament to the rejuvenating side effects of a yoga sadhana, or daily practice.

I'm glad you enjoyed the piece! I think that, between the awkward moments (chem lab, I'm looking at you), we all have those parts of high school that we loved and still love to remember. I like to embrace the differences rather than criticize them—that, I think (though I admittedly have not the experience to say so with expertise), is love.

I enjoyed this a lot, mainly because, in spite of being
a “brainy” Iyengar teacher from Manila who always strives to do it right, I hate it when arrogance or self-righteousness get into the picture. Let’s all enjoy the practice, too, challenges, frustrations and all. And yes, if you’re happy and respectful of all, the school really won’t matter. Best regards and keep writing.

Learning to swim is a very daunting task. I recently overcame my 20+ years of swimming. I have sat on the sideline and watching everyone else have fun, but me. I tried taking several swimming courses over the years, This video is my testimonial to the current swim course I am in.

I enjoyed this article very much as my own yogic journey has led me through Iynegar, Vinyasa, Bikram and Yin. I've found them all supportive and/or transformative at different times. However, I've never studied yoga or taken any training so having the different "schools" laid out like this was helpful.